Archive | June, 2014

Cagayan de Oro City — Thousands of children in Northern Mindanao are now medically considered as healthy after 120 days of supplementary feeding by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

DSWD’s Nutritionist-Dietitian Rechel Grace C. Ceniza disclosed that out of 123,991 children, only 4,345 are left malnourished after being subjected to supplementary feeding for 120 days.

Ceniza said Day Care Centers throughout the region followed a 20-day cycle menu, serving variety of viands and rice in a day.

She said the menu is standard supplement to the three meals for a child under the modified nutritional recipes for the implementation of supplementary feeding.

Bukidnon province tops the number of malnourished children during the 2013-2014 cycle of feeding with 39,145. But, it declines after the 120-day period of feeding with 3,432 left malnourished or 8.8 percent.

Camiguin has the least number of malnourished children in the entire region with 2,510 at the start of the program. Of the number, only 121 children are left malnourished.

Ceniza explained that malnourished children are those found either severely underweight or underweight.

“The 120 days feeding program has improved the nutritional status of 11,736 malnourished beneficiaries due to strengthened monitoring and coordination among DSWD, parents, and local government units,” the nutritionist-dietitian added.

Parents have been involved in feeding preparations and sessions while Day Care Workers supervised the program.

Meanwhile, Atty. Araceli F. Solamillo, Regional Director of DSWD Northern Mindanao; is optimistic that several children in the region will become healthy this 2014-2015 4th feeding cycle, which will start this July 2014.

DSWD has targeted 115,430 children, currently enrolled at day care centers.

Lanao del Norte – 13 community projects were inaugurated last June 26, 2014 in Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte which were made possible through the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan – Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services – Peaceful and Resilient Communities (KALAHI-CIDSS PAMANA) – a community-driven development (CDD)project implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

The subprojects inaugurated were expansion or potable water systems, construction of pathways, farm-to-market roads improvements, and two-classroom units. The total project costs totaled to more than P4.7 Million Pesos.

Barangays Libertad, Inudaran, Tacub, Kawit Occidental, Tugar, Poblacion, Kawit Oriental, Cayontor, Baraason, Delabayan, Tingintingin, Bagumbayan, and Paiton completed each of their subprojects under the KALAHI-CIDSS PAMANA with a set of their own community volunteers.

Kauswagan has been victimized with unstable peace and order situation for years, following a series of attacks brought about by armed conflicts. To bring progress and stabilize the security and peace for its residents, the KALAHI-CIDSS PAMANA was launched in the said municipality to strengthen peacebuilding, reconstruction, and development in the area.

KALAHI-CIDSS PAMANA is the government’s peace and development framework that aims at putting a permanent and just closure to internal armed conflict through peace negotiations and undertaking programs that addresses the root causes of conflict through interventions on the ground. It is done through convergence of delivery of basic social services; good governance through responsive, transparent and accountable resource allocation and utilization, and community empowerment.

With the Project, the DSWD guides the community members in formulating the peace and development project criteria to determine which identified projects are feasible and are in line with the community’s common peace vision and the PAMANA goal of peaceful and resilient communities. The members identify and select projects that clearly address conflict situations in the community that they have identified. ###smu

Cagayan de Oro City — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Northern Mindanao has recently brought its services and programs closer to the residents of Malitbog town, an interior municipality of Bukidnon province; some 52 kilometers off east of this city.

The convergence caravan dubbed as Serbisyo Distrito ni Cong. Malou, hosted by Rep. Ma Lourdes Acosta-Alba of the first district of Bukidnon, features the various programs and services of the local government unit and the national government agencies, including DSWD.

Lawyer Araceli F. Solamillo expressed gratitude to Rep. Acosta-Alba for the activity wherein DSWD directly offered its services and programs to the most vulnerable sectors of Malitbog.

“The caravan has brought the national government programs closer to the people, especially to the vulnerable sector of the communities,” said Solamillo.

Most of the clients of DSWD during the caravan are students who avail of the educational assistance, followed by Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries who asked for the status of their updates to the Municipal Links.

More than 2,000 residents, including Higaonon Tribe members, avail of the services of the national government agencies.

Solamillo disclosed that the caravan contributes to the upliftment of well-being of both Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries and non-Pantawid Pamilya clients because it helped them accessed the various government services.

DSWD also distributed flyers of its different of programs and services.

An organized fisherfolk group in Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte show off some of their catch of “bangus” in the coastal area of Barangay Libertad. The “Libertad Fisherfolks SKA” is a 20-member association organized through the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Sustainable Livelihood Program under the Grassroots Participatory Budget Process (SLP-GPBP). The government program aims to improve the socio-economic mobility of poor households by letting them undergo workshops and skills trainings in order to determine the most suitable market-driven and resource-based livelihoods to engage in. In Lanao de Norte, there are 27 associations under SLP-GPBP benefiting from the Program. ###smu

Cagayan de Oro City – The Department of Social Welfare and Development recently reported that more than 30,000 beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, particularly those benefitting from the Program since 2008 and 2009, have now moved their households’ well-being from “survival” to “subsistence.”

Using the Social Welfare Indicator (SWI) tool used by the DSWD, three waves of assessment were done to in 2011, 2012, and 2013, having a baseline data of 57,519 households under the first wave. The assessment provides a clear data on the movement of the poor households’ well-being from “survival,” to “subsistence,” to “self-sufficiency” by gauging their economic efficiency and social adequacy.

According to Atty. Araceli F. Solamillo, Regional Director of DSWD Field Office X, the positive result shows that along with the social protection programs being provided to the beneficiaries, the households’ resiliency against poverty and gaining a sense of understanding on how to combat it was contributory to this improvement.

The SWI tool assesses each household’s employment and employable skills, income, and social insurance, health, nutrition, sanitation, hygiene, housing and other living conditions, educational skills of household members, family activities, and role performance of household members.

Qualified Pantawid Pamilya households are determined through the assessment of “Listahanan,” the National Household Targeting System of the national government that identifies who, where, and how vulnerable poor households are in the Philippines. Each program beneficiary is able to receive a maximum of P1,400 monthly cash grant mainly for their children’s education and health needs.

To continue this progress, the DSWD is committed to raise the well-being of 83,333 Pantawid Pamilya households in Region X, from subsistence to self-sufficiency, in 2014. According to Solamillo, the DSWD will continue to implement social protection programs focusing on these poor households, ensuring that each is able to benefit at least two social welfare and development interventions from the government.###smu

The validation of the Department of Social Welfare and Development for Social Pension and the Modified Conditional Cash Transfer for Families in Need of Special Protection in Northern Mindanao is now on its encoding and verifying stage. Area supervisors and enumerators have turned over their accomplished Family Assessment Forms (FAF) to the National Household Targeting Unit at the DSWD regional office .
Along with the forms goes the workers with their experiences they had during the validation. They believe thatthe experiences,both good and bad, were points for learning and opportunities for improvement .
As for Al Nor Paingco-Limpao,one of the enumerators in Lanao del Norte, the experience enhanced his capacity to deal with all kinds of personalities and through it, he has learned how to coordinate with local officials. Not to mention,the importance of teamwork in the course of their work on field which, he believed, was very essential in doing their tasks . Amidst the varied experiences they had, including that of eating sardines only for the day , he emphasized that it gave them the confidence that whatever job or task they would be given in the near future, they would be able to handle it well.
Steffan Skye Reyes, one of the Area Supervisors assigned for the MCCT-FNSP validation in Cagayan de Oro stressed that being an AS is no big joke.She realized that as the team leader, you have to be abreast with the activities of the team and you have to assert your authority in order to come up with an organized and credible output . This entailed several nights without enough sleep and less quality time with the family. On one hand, she said that the thing that kept them going is knowing that, they have contributed to these validated families who will be streamlined to Pantawid Pamilya Program and will be able to have access of the various programs and services of the government and other concerned stakeholders.
The experiences the enumerators and area supervisors had in the field were indeed varied and this ranges from positive to negative . Majority of them were overwhelmed of the support of the local officials which went as far as providing them vehicles in going to remote areas , providing them security escorts in conflict prone areas (some parts in Lanao del Norte), and providing them accommodations and meals after a hard days’ work.
On the negative side, they had encountered people in the barangays who confronted them as to why not all of them will be validated in their barangay, which usually ends with a litany of explaining on their part that sometimes, caused the delay of their schedule .
One area supervisor in Misamis Occidental also shared his sentiments of not being supported and accommodated well in one of the LGUs in the province which nearly persuaded him to quit and go home. Good thing, he said,he was reminded of his commitment to continue his responsibility and accountability to his team and those to be validated.
As for the other Social Pension enumerators,they also had their share of experiences. They recalled that upon hearing that enumerators would be validating them, many of the social pensioners thought that they would be bringing with them their delayed pension for the quarter . This , they all agreed tested their skill in dealing with sentimental and sensitive elderlies.
These and more,both the enumerators and area supervisors assigned in the field had their own stories to tell. The thing is,whatever they have gained from their experiences , would be but stepping stones for them and are beneficial on their part in the next job opportunities they would be given.
Apart from these, what they did, being the front liners during the validation, were indeed significant both for the indigent Social Pensioners and the MCCT-FNSP beneficiaries. (Modified Conditional Cash Transfer for Families in Need of Special Protection) .
The validation for Social Pension was conducted after the COA ruled out that out of the 15, 392 indigent social pensioners , only 4,068 were in the Listahanan database. Beneficiaries for the MCCT-FNSP were those beneficiaries who were validated as Sendong survivors . They were not regular Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries thus, the need for them to be validated before they are to be mainstreamed to the regular Pantawid Pamilya Program.
Written by Mitzie S. Santiago ,DSWD

Youth residents of the Regional Rehabilitation Center for Youth (RRCY) based in Gingoog City gets some history course about Philippine Independence in celebration of the Independence Day. The RRCY is a center managed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development to serve children in conflict with the law in Northern Mindanao.###smu

Cagayan de Oro City — The Department of Social Welfare and Development in Northern Mindanao has transferred funds amounting to P42,810,800 to the Department of Education to feed the severely wasted Kinder and Grades I-VI pupils and their families in the whole region.

Lawyer Araceli F. Solamillo said the transfer of funds aims to address the under nutrition problem and short term hunger among public school children in Northern Mindanao through the School- Based Feeding Program.

Solamillo and DepEd officials had recently signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to implement the feeding program.

The implementation of the program is the response of DSWD to the recent DepEd Nutritional Assessment Report for SY 2012-2013 which revealed that 14.24% or about 2 million school children are wasted and 0.4 million school children are overweight.

DSWD is responsible in releasing funds to the DepEd in accordance with COA circular numbers 94-013 dated December 13, 1994 which tasks DSWD to help DepEd in the monitoring of fund management, utilization, program implementation and respond to operational concerns of the SBFP and shall likewise designate a project focal person to ensure that the implementation of the program is administered.

On the other hand, DepEd shall be responsible for the full implementation of the SBFP and ensure timely release of funds to the division offices and its liquidation.

Sheryl Ave, focal person of Supplementary Feeding Program of DSWD Northern Mindanao, said that based on the program, DepEd will provide food in addition to the regular meals of severely wasted school children to address the under nutrition problem and short term hunger among public school children.

Ave also clarified that the wasted children may also be included in the program of a local government unit or of a non-government organization.

“The food supplementation will be in a form of hot meals to be served once a day during snack/meal time five days a week for 120 days to target beneficiaries,”she said.

Parents of the beneficiaries will managed the feeding program based on a prepared meal cycle using available indigenous food supplies.